SPE-188097-MS

Assessment of Explosion Hazards Associated With Nano-Powders

Adnan Deshmukh, SPE, MIT, Pune,Sangit Varma, Techniche, Inc., Nilesh Sakpal, Techniche, Inc., Sagar
Wakale, Techniche, Inc., Akshay Agwan, Techniche, Inc. Samarth D. Patwardhan, SPE, MIT, Pune

Copyright 2017, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Annual Technical Symposium and Exhibitionheld in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, 24–
27April 2017.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained i n an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the
written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words;
illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
Nano-powders are composed of particles in size range from about 1 to 100 nano-metres (nm). The
growing demand for nano-powders arises from the change in physical, chemical and electrical properties
exhibited by such particles when their size falls below 100 nm. Along with the increasing production
and use of Nano scale particles, there has been a growing concern over the impact of this
new technology on health, safety and environment. This has almost exclusively concentrated on the
potential health hazards of nano-powders. One potential hazard that appears to have received little
attention to date is their explosivity. Explosive dust clouds can be generated from most organic
materials, many metals and even some non-metallic inorganic materials. Dust explosions involving
particle sizes ranging from a few microns to hundreds of microns, there is a need for these particles to
be extensively studied. This work involves computationally modelling the explosion, and investigation
of critical parameters that can enhance the severity of the explosion. These parameters include but are
not limited to effect of particle size, dust concentration and composition, ignition strength, degree of
dust dispersion, explosion characteristics of nano-particles, operating conditions. Further, the work
involved in this paper looks at the impact onto the environment by explosion of such nano-powders.
The possibility of dust generation accumulation and explosion in various areas of the facility are
investigated. A checklist for adequacy of existing safety measures is prepared, and requirement for
additional safeguards is studied, in order to avoid catastrophic effects.

Introduction
The earliest reported incidents of dust in the literature date back to 1785 (7). The explosions in coal
mines which was a prospering industry then, were recognized as routine event and the researchers
failed to acknowledge its severity. In 1803 it was found (7) that coal dust in passageways had burned
and caused flame as well as violence of coal mine. In 1800s, many more published works (1) report
explosions because of coal dust even though there was no fire damp. A dust explosion gets initiated up
by the rapid combustion of fine combustible particulates in air. Due to this, there is liberation a of
gaseous products with huge pressure rise; this pressure rise destructs plant, property and lives of
people. Smaller the particle size, more rapid and intense burning will take place, till a stage is reached
2 SPE-188097-MS

when particles are too much fine and they join to form nugget (smaller particles form bigger ones).
The ignited combustible dust cloud would only cause a flash fire if dust cloud is unconfined, but if the
ignited dust cloud is confined, the gases released (heat generated) by combustion of cloud may result
in rapid development of pressure and would eventually result in explosion. In some situations, the
destructive explosion also occurs even when cloud is not confined. Conditions required for a dust
explosion to occur are the presence of an oxidant, a combustible dust cloud, presence of oxygen,
confinement area and an ignition source to trigger dust cloud. The oxygen required for the explosion is
supplied by air.
The flame or spark that triggers a dust explosion can be produced by blowtorch, static
electricity, electric spark, friction or any open flame. Dust composed of sugar, cotton, coal, flour,
starch, grain, combustible metallic dust or other organic materials are highly explosive. Certain
metallic dusts like magnesium, aluminum dust are also explosive. 70% of working dusts in industries
are combustible. Grain elevators, size reducer, packing dust, conveying—manual or mechanical
cyclones, electrostatic precipitator, settling chambers, classifying operations mixing and blending
operation storage, filter scrubbers, bag unloading stations, unloaders are mainly subject to dust
explosions (where there is a chance of dust collection there will be a chance of dust explosion). Dust
explosion is effected by particle size (finer the particle size, more the chances of explosion), dust
concentration (between LEL and UEL), oxidant concentration (more percentage of oxidant or gases
more will be possibility of explosion), ignition temperature, turbulence of dust cloud.
An event of dust explosion is observed to happen in two distinct stages, primary dust explosion
and secondary dust explosion. Primary dust explosion occurs inside a confined area such as silo, hopper
etc. These are generally controlled by pressure relief ducts. Secondary dust explosions get initiated by
primary explosions. When waves of primary dust explosion move, they will disturb the settled dust layer
and form another dust cloud that will explode. It is not possible to eliminate the explosions, but there are
certain methods to prevent the dust explosions. These are eliminated by ignition sources, using pressure
relief vent holes, inerting the dust, static electrification of powder during pneumatic transport, magnetize
surfactants etc. It is also possible to prevent dust explosion if characteristics of dust like minimum
ignition energy required for explosion, minimum and maximum dust concentration required for
explosion are known.

Background
When a very fine dust gets suspended in air and is ignited by a heating element or sparked, it will lead to
a dust explosion. A dust explosion will cause rapid burning and due to this rapid burning there is release
of gases with a huge pressure rise of explosive force that will cause damage of property, plant, and
people’s lives. The formation of cloud would be due to cohesive forces between the dust particles.
Initially one particle of dust will ignite and after that a chain will start that will ignite the whole cloud.
Dust cloud will be ignited by heating element such as spark, electric motor, heating operation etc.
Sometimes dust clouds will also be ignited by electrostatic charge that is produced by friction between
the particles.
SPE-188097-MS 3

Figure 1: Burning at the welded joint and dust explosion in pipe (7)

 Mechanism of dust explosion:

Surface area of dust is very large as compared to their mass. Burning will occur on the surface of
dust where it reacts with oxygen. For 1.0 kg of a material of spherical shape with density and
surface area of 1.0 g/cm3, 0.3 m2 respectively, if this material is crushed into spheres of 50 µm
diameter then surface area is increased to 60 m². This large amount of increased surface area of
dust allows the material to burn much faster.
 Conditions for dust explosion:
For dust explosion to occur certain condition are required to fulfill; without fulfillment of
these conditions there is no chance of dust explosion to occur.
These conditions are listed as follows:
1. The dust which will form cloud must be combustible.
2. Finer the dust will be, greater will be the chance of explosion.
3. Dust per unit volume must be in explosive concentration.
4. Supply of oxygen must be there.
5. Without ignition source, no explosion takes place.
 Dust cloud formation in environment:
Dust cloud formation process-
1. Inter particle forces between dust particles (cohesion).
2. Entrainment of particles when shock wave passing across deposit surface.
3. Transport of dust particles in turbulent gas flow.

Figure 2: Explosion Pentagon (8)

4 SPE-188097-MS

 Types of dust explosions:

1. Primary explosion-
When combustible dust forms a cloud and comes in contact with a heating element, then it
leads to an explosion. The dust explosion mainly occurs in tray drier, rotary driers, dust fired
heaters, spray driers, settling chamber, size reduction, pneumatic separation equipments,
mills, mixers, cyclone separators, filters, silos and pneumatic transport system.
2. Secondary explosion-
After primary explosion, when blast waves travel in turn disturbing the settling dust which
again forms a cloud of the same dust. Settling dust has very little thickness, but it is quite
dangerous when it forms a cloud. So explosion caused by this settling dust cloud is called
secondary explosion.

A list of major dust explosions is given in Table 1

Table 1: Major dust explosions in the world
Source
Event Date Location Country Fatalities Injuries
material
Washburn "A" Mill Minneapolis,
May 2, 1878 United States grain dust 22
explosion Minnesota
Mount Mulligan mine September Mount Mulligan,
Australia coal dust 75
disaster 19, 1921 Queensland
Benxihu Colliery April 26, Manchukuo coal dust and
Benxi, Liaoning 1,549
explosion 1942 (now China) gas
Westwego grain December Westwego,
United States grain dust 36 13
elevator explosion 22, 1977 Louisiana
Galveston grain December
Galveston, Texas United States grain dust 20
elevator explosion 27, 1977
Bird's Custard factory November United
Banbury corn starch 9
explosion 18, 1981 Kingdom
Metz malt factory October 18,
Metz France barley dust 12 1
explosion 1982
Harbin textile factory March 17,
Harbin China flax dust 58 177
explosion 1987
Blaye grain explosion August 1997 Blaye France grain dust 11 1
West Pharmaceutical January 29, Kinston, North polyethylene
United States 6 38
Services explosion 2003 Carolina dust
Imperial Sugar February 7, Port Wentworth,
United States sugar dust 14 42
explosion 2008 Georgia
2014 Kunshan August 2,
Kunshan China metal powder 146 114
explosion 2014
Formosa Fun Coast June 27, colored starch
New Taipei Taiwan 15 498
explosion 2015 powder
Bosley Wood flour United
July 17, 2015 Bosley, Cheshire wood flour 4 4
mill explosion Kingdom
SPE-188097-MS 5

Kst, the dust deflagration index, measures the relative explosion severity compared to other dusts. The
larger the value for Kst, the more severe the explosion. Kst provides the best “single number” estimate
of the anticipated behavior of a dust deflagration. Table 2 below gives the characteristics of dust
according to Kst:
Table 2: Characteristics of Dust according to Kst
Explosion classes Kst Characteristics

St 0 - Non Explosible

St1 0 < Kst ≤ 200 Weak to moderate

St2 200 < Kst ≤ 300 Strong explosion

St3 Kst >300 Extremely Explosible

Determination of MIT(Minimum Ignition Teperature) of Coal Dust cloud:

Coal dust particle size (250-500 μm), (150-250 μm), (75-150 μm), (48-75 μm), (25-48 μm) were
tested respectively at the environment temperature (293± 5) K and the pressure of powder was
0.8 MPa. MIT was determined by changing dust concentration of coal.

1- The operating handle; 2- the outer wall; 3- The inner wall; 4- Vacuum table; 5-cooling water inlet; 6- fast opening valve; 7- base; 8-
observation window; 9- inlet; 10-dust dispersed valve; 11- gas chamber ;12- electric contact pressure gauge; 13- pressure sensor; 14- cooling
water outer; 15- security lock

Figure 3: Schematic of 20L sphere vessel dust explosion experiment (2)

Coal dust was sprayed into the storage tank at pressure of 2MPa and temperature of (295± 5) K.
It was scattered into the container by pressurized gas through dust dispersion system. To ignite
the dust, 10KJ energy is supplied at the center of the tank by a chemical igniter. Maximum
6 SPE-188097-MS

pressure and temperature was recorded with the help of pressure and temperature sensors. Lower
explosive limit and maximum explosive limit was found at different dust concentrations.
It has been analyzed from the Figure 4(a) that explosion pressure is constant during initial dust
concentration but after 20 g/m3 explosion pressure rise with increase in dust concentration. In
Figure 4(b), explosion pressure first increase up to approx 0.45 MPa then decrease and become
minimum at concentration more than 1000 g/m3.

Figure 4(a) and (b): Experimental results of dust explosion in 20L sphere (2)
Model Description
Parameters like concentration of dust, initial temperature, viscosity of fluid, diameter of particle, specific
heat of fluid, time and turbulence; directlyor indirectly affect the explosion pressure. A mathematical
model was created, which includes all the above mentioned parameters, as a function of pressure.
Explosion Pressure (P) = f(ρ, Ti, μ, dp, Cp, t, Re)
Since, the Buckingham ∏ theorem provides a method for computing sets of dimensionless parameters
from given variables, even if the form of the equation remains unknown.
By using Buckingham ∏ Theorem:
∏1 = K(∏2)n1(∏3)n2(∏4)n3 (1)
∏1 = P.ρ.(dp / μ)2

∏2 = Cp. ρ2.Ti.(dp / μ)2

∏3 = Re

∏4 = t.μ / [ρ.(dp)2]
Where, P = Pressure (Pa)
ρ = Dust concentration (Kg/m3)
Ti = Initial temperature = 293K
μ = Viscosity = 1.98x10-2 kg/(s·m)
dp = Diameter of particle (m)
Cp = Specific heat = 1.21
t = time = 60 ms

Table 3 gives the ∏1, ∏2, ∏3, ∏4 terms for 36.5 micrometer coal particle (Figure 5):
SPE-188097-MS 7

Table 3

P ρ ∏1 ∏2 ∏3 ∏4
46000 0.007189 1.12E-03 6.23E-08 1 1.24E+08
46000 0.012581 1.97E-03 1.91E-07 1 70878668
74000 0.01977 4.97E-03 4.71E-07 1 45104933
104000 0.023963 8.47E-03 6.92E-07 1 37212558
136000 0.028756 1.33E-02 9.96E-07 1 31010034
150000 0.032051 1.63E-02 1.24E-06 1 27822050
173000 0.036244 2.13E-02 1.58E-06 1 24603370
198000 0.041636 2.80E-02 2.09E-06 1 21417152
221000 0.046429 3.49E-02 2.60E-06 1 19206197
249000 0.051221 4.33E-02 3.16E-06 1 17409354
271000 0.054516 5.02E-02 3.58E-06 1 16357116
289000 0.057512 5.65E-02 3.98E-06 1 15505017
From the above table, the values of K and n are calculated which are values of the intercept and
variables respectively. In other words, K is the Y-intercept and n1, n2, n3 are the slopes of the line Y =
Nx + C.
Value of K and n after regression,

Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-value Lower 95% Upper 95% Lower 95.0% Upper 95.0%
Intercept 4.118108984 0.214231886 19.22267065 3.16084E-09 3.640770598 4.59544737 3.640770598 4.59544737
X Variable 1 0.999585819 0.035699211 28.00022124 7.83891E-11 0.920043019 1.079128619 0.920043019 1.079128619
X Variable 2 0 0 65535 #NUM! 0 0 0 0
X Variable 3 0 0 65535 #NUM! 0 0 0 0

K= 104.118108984, n1= 0.999585819, n2= 0, n3= 0

Table 4: Validation of mathematical model

Explosion Pressure (bar)
3
Concentration (Kg/m ) Experimental Calculated
0.007189 46000 3.36E+04
0.012581 46000 5.89E+04
0.01977 74000 9.24E+04
0.023963 104000 1.12E+05
0.028756 136000 1.34E+05
0.032051 150000 1.50E+05
0.036244 173000 1.69E+05
0.041636 198000 1.95E+05
0.046429 221000 2.17E+05
0.051221 249000 2.39E+05
0.054516 271000 2.50E+05
0.057512 289000 2.68E+05
8 SPE-188097-MS

Based on the results of mathematical model reported above, an analysis was carried out to check the
conformity with the experimental data and to determine the % error denoting the deviations from
experimental values.

350000

300000

250000
Explosion Pressure (bar)

200000
Experimental
150000 Calculated

100000

50000

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
Concentration (Kg/m3)

Figure 5: Results of model validation with experimental data

Results and discussion

As shown in above Figure 6, the % error 9.453% which is well within acceptable limits. The smaller
error confirms the applicability of equation for using as an empirical correlation for estimation of initial
guess for any facility which would be related with generation, accumulation and settling of dust having
properties similar to coal. Although the equation is validated for particles with size in the range of
microns, the same can be effectively used for nano-sized particles. It is reported in the literature (6) with
reduction in particle size, the minimum ignition energy (MIE) required for explosion greatly reduces.
For Aluminum dusts, the transition of particle size from micro to nano would be responsible for the
value of MIE being reduced by 65% (9). It means that, the nano-sized cloud would burn for any flame or
spark with having a very low value of Mie while a micro-sized dust would need a significant value of
MIE producing approximately same value of explosion overpressure.
SPE-188097-MS 9

Conclusion
The empirical correlation mentioned in this paper, can be used as screening tool on the basis of which a
designer or an engineer can determine if any dedicated analysis, such as computational fluid dynamics
based analysis, should be used to determine actual value of explosion overpressure and its profile with
respect to time and space which can in turn govern in approach used for detailed engineering. In the
current scenario, very little guidance is available on determination of the value of explosion
overpressure. The tools available are either too costly or require a very high degree of expertise in
mathematics or modeling, because of which the decision-makers are skeptical about investing in any
such analysis which would incur additional costs and which might conclude that the particular dust is
not responsible for any severe damage. The use of this equation can help the decision-makers to estimate
the approximate value of overpressure and thus in turn would largely govern the further analysis,
especially in developing country like India.

In addition to the equation, review of literature also suggests some preliminary measures which can be
effectively used to avoid dust explosion, such as removal of all sources that will ignite dust like naked
flames, smoking, electricity spark, gas cutting, welding etc. i.e. carrying out electrical hazardous area
classification as per industry standard guidelines like NFPA 499 etc. Another measure which can be
effective, especially for nano sized particles is provision of earthing of all equipment to prevent from
static electrical charges having very low MIE. Inerting of dust collected in any enclosure can also be an
effective mean to reduce possibility of explosion by removing/ replacing the oxygen available.

Way Forward
The reported equation is derived from the experimental properties of coal dust. A similar sets of
experiments can be carried out to measure the explosion overpressure associated other materials like
aluminum, magnesium, zinc, chromium, organic dust etc. and consequently developing equations for
each of the species being analyzed. The set of equations obtained can be further reviewed to devise a
more generalized equation which can be applied to any dust including the one whose properties are
unknown such as mixture of dust particles of different materials. The experimental setup can be
indigenously prepared and used for determination of properties of dust particles of unknown or mixed
origin. Another application of the experimental data generated can be to prepare a CFD based model for
modeling of the dust explosion in a sophisticated manner and to provide a cost-effective solution to
decision-makers in India. The use of cost-effective alternative would promote the awareness about the
hazards of said phenomenon and would ensure a greater level of sense of security and safety in the
minds of the operator.

References
1. Weiguo CAO, Liyuan Huang , Jianxin Zhang, Sen Xu, Shanshan Qiu, Feng Pan, (2012). ―Research
on characteristics parameters of coal dust explosion‖Procedia engineering. V.45, P.P 442-447.
2. Li Yuan, Xu Hongli, Wang Xishi, (2013). ―Experimental study on the influence of initial pressure
on explosion of methane – coal dust mixtures‖Procedia engineering .V.62, P.P 980- 984.
3. Dufaud.O, Traore.M, Perrin.L, Chazelet .S, Thomas, (2010). ―Experimental investigation and
modeling of aluminum dusts explosions in 20 L sphere‖. Journal of loss prevention in the process
industries. V.23, P.P 226-236.
10 SPE-188097-MS

4. Mittal Manju (2014). ―Explosion Characteristics of micron and nano magnesium powder‖. journal of
loss prevention in the process industries.V.27, P.P 55-64
5. HSL/2004/12 J:\xcontrol\reports\2004\ec_04_03\ec_04_03.doc.-Explosion Parameters such as LEL,
MEC, MIE, etc.
6. IChemE SYMPOSIUM SERIES NO. 155 Hazards XXI # 2009 Crown Copyright -Explosion
properties of nanopowders and 20L Sphere Vessel.
7. S.S. Mallick, S. Barman, Harpreet Singh ―International Journal of Scientific & Engineering
Research, Volume 6, Issue 4, April-2015 351 ISSN 2229-5518.
8. Abbasi Tasneem, Abbasi.S.A., (2006). ― Dust explosion– cases, cause,consequences and
control‖ Center of pollution control and energy technology.
9. Olivier Dufaud, Alexis Vignes, Fran_cois Henry, Laurent Perrin, Jacques Bouillard 2014 ―Ignition
and explosion of nanopowders: something new under the dust